


Mess With Their Heads

by Fae_Ryn



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: (It's 'Cause They Already Worked Through Their Problems), Alana and Zoe Representing Us Useless WLW, Basically Connor's Just... Very Bubbly, Body Swap, Cheerleader!Alana, Cotton Candy!Connor, Established Relationship, Everybody's Still Got Their various Mental Illnesses Though, Fluffy and Cute, Harmless fun, Hipster!Jared, Hipster!Jared and Punk!Evan Are Besties Fight Me, Is Cotton Candy! A Thing?, M/M, Punk!Evan, Self-Doubt For All of Two Seconds, Swearing But Not a Lot, They're Just Coping a Lot Better, but not really, cotton candy and hunters au, nerd!Zoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-25 17:02:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14383071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fae_Ryn/pseuds/Fae_Ryn
Summary: What better way to get his punk boyfriend to actually go to class than by making it a prank?Cotton Candy And Hunters is an AU by mushie,and you can find more information on their tumblr by clicking here.If you haven't seen her work onyoutube you can check out their channel here.She's a great artist, please go give them the love she deserves!





	Mess With Their Heads

**Author's Note:**

> Hey-o. Not new to Ao3, but definitely new to the DEH fandom. 
> 
> I promise you'll be seeing more of me though.
> 
> [Click here](https://softmushie.tumblr.com/post/169197980647/dont-fuckin-sugarcoat-it) [or here](https://cipherdoodles.tumblr.com/post/169204765815/i-was-going-to-draw-boyf-riends-but-then-i-saw) to see what Connor and Evan look like in this AU.

**☆ Me! ☆**

Ev, are you ready for our presentation tomorrow? :D

 

**♡ Prince Charming ♡**

fuck school

lets skip

 

**☆ Me! ☆**

We can't! >:(

 

**♡ Prince Charming ♡**

y?

 

**☆ Me! ☆**

Because then we won't get to see everybody!

Also this presentation is worth 10% of our grade >->

 

**♡ Prince Charming ♡**

we see them evry day

schools boring

ditch w me connie

 

**☆ Me! ☆**

What if I had a plan to make school more interesting? ;)

 

**♡ Prince Charming ♡**

doubt it

but it is u so

 

**☆ Me! ☆**

Come over and I'll tell you aaaall about it~ ;)

 

**♡ Prince Charming ♡**

b there in 5

 

**☆ Me! ☆**

♡♡♡♡♡!!!!

 

**♡ Prince Charming ♡**

<3

 

 

 

 

Jared has a feeling.

Not a bad feeling.

Not a good feeling.

Just… a feeling. A gut instinct that something is going to happen today that will merit picking up boba milk tea instead of Starbucks. Alternatively his gut is tired of him drinking overpriced overhyped sugar water trying to pass for coffee just because Evan had taunted him about being too hipster for Starbucks.

One of the two.

Either way, he walked into school with a mouth full of almond milk tea and tapioca pearls and his face buried in his phone. A friend of his thought he could get a broken vintage record player for cheap and he'd be damned if he'd turn it down just because he didn't know how to fix the stupid thing. He’s in front of his locker scrolling through pages of suggestions and diagnoses when the source of his feeling comes bounding up.

“Hey Jared!”

“Hey Connor,” he says, greeting him without looking up from his phone.

Connor laughs, cheery and bell-like. “What are you talking about? Did you forget my name overnight?”

Jared looks up and feels reality shatter. “E-Evan?”

Evan giggles. “Of course! Who else would it be?”

Jared doesn't have a response. He just stares as Evan fucking Hansen skips the last steps to his locker, humming some absurdly upbeat tune. His newly ombre pink hair bounces with him. He'd raided a fourteen year old girl’s closet for his clothes, a pastel pink sweater with gold cursive spelling out ‘Bubblegum B****’ across his chest and dove grey skinny jeans. He'd apparently also raided Connor’s closet to steal his gold heart earrings, baby blue nail polish, and pastel pink boot… shoe… things. Gone are the other piercings, done away along with Evan’s usual dark eyeliner, which he'd replaced with bright eyeshadow and cat eyes that look way too good for a beginner - at least, based on Alana’s middle school troubles.

The pentagram tattoo on his neck is gone too, but that is honestly the least surprising thing about him today. Jared is one of the four people who know it’s fake. Heidi would rather fight a dragon than allow her son to get a neck tattoo.

Then again he'd thought Evan would rather fist fight his mom than wear anything brighter than black, but here they are. He’s pretty sure his eyeballs are going to dry out and shrivel up before he begins to comprehend what he’s seeing.

Evan flashing him a bright, bubbly grin is what finally shocks him back to reality. That and forgetting the boba in his mouth. He chokes, bending over double as he coughs it out of his airways.

“Oh gosh, Jared, are you okay?”

He nods. Then shakes his head no. Then takes a deep breath, straightens up, and looks to Evan, who has a distressingly Connor-like wide eyed look of confusion on his face. Evan tilts his head to the side questioningly.

“What the fuck,” Jared says.

“Huh?”

“What the fuck,” he repeats more emphatically, waving towards Evan.

“Is something wrong?” Evan asks, looking down at his sweater with wide eyes. “Is the lyric too much? I thought it might be, but you know how much I love Marina and the Diamonds…”

“No, you- Okay. No no no no no what the hell is going on? Who are you and what have you done with Evan?” Jared demands, only half exaggerating his distress.

Evan pulls off another disturbingly good impression of Connor as he pouts. “Geez, Jared, I’m not the one acting weird today. Is something up with you?”

Jared’s spared having to find a response by another voice.

“‘Sup.”

Now that he’s expecting it, the tired, flat inflection doesn’t convince Jared it’s Evan speaking to him, but it is still uncannily close. It is, of course, dark Connor, leaning up against the locker wall opposite them. Gone are the cheery pink and blue highlights in his hair, leaving only a dense, curly curtain of dark brown. He’s actually wearing his lip piercings for once, rings and studs running up and down his ears. He’d apparently raided Evan’s closet, not that it was incredibly difficult to find dark wash jeans, black t-shirts, leather jackets, or well worn black tennis shoes. Jared feels the apocalypse creeping closer. Connor? In dark clothes? And sure, Connor always wore eyeliner, but that was cat eyes and glitter and metallics, not this heavy black line running over his distressingly dull eyes.

Those eyes warm when Evan leaps into his chest, embracing his boyfriend gleefully. Connor chuckles.

“Hey to you too Evvie.”

_Evvie?!_

“‘Morning! How was your night?”

Connor hums, lifting Evan’s face from his chest to press a kiss to his lips. “Alright. Would've been better with you there.”

Evan flushes and swats at his arm. “You-! Uh, you always say that!”

Connor’s face breaks into a grin that he quickly hides behind his locker door. “That’s ‘cause it's always true.”

Jared watches in growing confusion. That had been a flash of their normal personalities, but then what the fuck is with the rest of it?

“What's with this Freaky Friday shit?” he demands. “Like, did you two have a sleepover and accidentally wear each others’ clothes or what?”

Connor doesn’t spare him a glance. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I don’t know!” Evan says, crossing his arms. “He keeps saying I’m acting strange. I’m not, am I?”

“‘Course not Evvie.”

Jared gets nothing out of either of them but confusion before the bell rings to start the day. He doesn’t have classes with either of them this year, but he arrives at their usual lunch table to find the two of them still haven’t stopped being each other. It’s beginning to bother him.

Jared has known Evan his entire life. Literally. Their mothers met at the library while browsing the pregnancy planning books.

Not once in all of those seventeen plus years has he seen Evan this fucking… bubbly. It's creepy. Off putting. Sort of apocalyptic really. He's kind of expecting a supervolcano to go off and end the world but instead Evan just gives Alana a 1000 megawatt smile and asks her about how the pep rally preparations are going.

“Zoe, tell me you know what's going on,” Jared pleads.

Zoe doesn't deign to look up from her carefully color coded review sheet. “With the wardrobe change? Not a clue.”

“You don't know?”

“No.”

“You seem awfully unbothered for someone who doesn't know what's going on,” Jared says, suspicious.

“Do I?”

“Yes! Doesn't that bother you?” Jared demands, pointing at the swapped lovebirds.

Zoe looks up at her brother for a few seconds before shrugging. “It's Connor.”

“No, that's an alien in your brother’s body!”

“I gave up trying to understand why my brother does most of the things he does years ago. He’s fine.”

“Okay, then what about Evan? Is that ‘fine’ too?”

“Connor has a way of pulling people along with him when he gets excited about something. Evan’s his boyfriend; is it really that much of a surprise that he would go along with it?”

“Look, we all know Evan would do anything for Connor but don't you think this’s a little much?”

Zoe sighs and puts her papers away. “Jared, you know Evan better than I do. Can you imagine him doing this if Connor asked?”

“I mean, I guess, but… Why would he ask?”

“I don't know.”

“Geez Jare, if it's bothering you so much why don't you just ask Evan?” Alana interrupts.

“I have! He won't tell me!”

“Then just let them do their thing.”

“Oh for- Come on! I know I'm not the only one who thinks this is super weird!”

“Sure, but you're the only one who won't shut up about it. If they're happy like this why do you care?”

Because when he sees Evan like this it sort of feels like he doesn't really know his oldest friend? “It's just…”

“Weird?” Alana and Zoe fill in simultaneously. They glance at each other and look away, embarrassed.

Jared groans and lays his head down on the cold metal of the lunch tables. He has lost. It had been a glorious battle, attempting to fight off the mind control of the alien beings in their friends’ bodies, but alas, he has been slain.

Or at least nobody else would indulge his desire to swap conspiracy theories about their friends.

But slain sounded cooler.

 

 

At home that night, the question continues to bother him. What was going on? Was this really a prank?

Or had Connor and Evan really just needed to switch things up a little?

If that is the case then Jared has to be making it more difficult for them by asking so many questions. They are both somewhat confident people - had to be, to dress and act the way that they did - but if one of their best friends was one of the most vocal about the change it would only make sense for them to be self-conscious. And that wasn't fair. He should be supporting them, just like always.

He could do supportive. Right? Maybe his friends just… needed some room to experiment?

Jared walks into school the next day determined not to act like the swap bothered him at all. He’s very casually leaning up against his locker when a pair of scuffed black sneakers enter his field of view. He very casually doesn't look up or acknowledge the other. So casual. God Jared is good at this.

“Hey.”

Jared plasters a smile on and looks up as he says, “Hey Con- Evan?!”

It… certainly looks like normal Evan. Black everything? Check. Dark makeup? Check. Sandy blonde hair? Check.

“Are you-? What was-?” Jared sputters as he tries to collect his thoughts.

Evan looks at him like he'd lost his mind. “What the hell’s up with you?”

“What's up with me? What's up with you! You're back to normal!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Yesterday!”

“Did something happen yesterday?” Evan asks with a yawn, turning back to his locker.

“I- Yes?” He isn't… sure, actually, because Evan is acting like nothing happened and one of the two of them has to have had some kind of psychotic break right?

“Evan!” A tall, cotton candy blur launches itself at Evan, wrapping its arms around his shoulders.

Evan grunts. “Christ Connie, you're gonna knock me over.”

“But I'm so happy to see you!”

“‘S good to see you too.”

They finish off their morning ritual with a kiss, after which Evan holds Connor close to whisper something that makes Connor laugh. It’s… normal. The same kind of normal you’d get if you walked into an abandoned town and found a fully stocked, cleaned, and staffed Walmart in the middle of it.

The thing that bothers him the most though? Nobody else seems to care!

“What is going on?” Jared groans, making a show of pushing his lunch tray aside.

“They tried something new and decided they liked what they had before better. End of story,” Alana says.

“No, no, no. There is absolutely more to this and I’m not going to stop talking about it until I get answers! Zoe, don’t you want to know too?”

“Not really. As long as it makes Connor happy.”

“Oh come on! Yesterday was weird! Right?”

Zoe smiles. “Like I said yesterday. It’s just Connor.”

Jared throws his hands up in exasperation. “Or mind controlling aliens! Why will no one go with the mind controlling aliens theory?”

“Because you don’t even believe it?”

“Indulge me a little.”

“No.”

Jared buries his head in his hands, muttering something about betrayal while Alana laughs.

“Oh, Zoe. You always shut him up in the funniest ways,” she says.

Zoe pushes up her glasses to give herself an excuse for taking a few seconds too long to say, “Um. Thanks?”

“No prob. You and Connor are really close. It makes me jealous - my sister and I barely talk.”

“Yeah, we are. It’s sort of amazing to have your sibling as your best friend. You know all the little things about them already, and they’re always closeby. I sort of feel sad when I remember that not everybody has such a close relationship with their siblings.”

“I bet. He’s lucky to have such a sweet sister.”

Zoe’s face flushes. “Ah, no, really, I’m lucky to have such a nice brother.”

“Awh, you’re too cute.”

“Alana, holy crap, if you keep that up she’s gonna explode,” Jared says. “Why aren’t you two dating again?”

Both girls break into embarrassed denials, only to be teased mercilessly by Jared, Evan and Connor joining in when they arrive. Eventually Alana grabs Zoe’s hand and strides off in a huff, leaving the rest to cackle their way through the lunch period.

 

  
“As long as he’s happy, huh?” Jared says out loud, tapping his fingers on the wheel as he waits to make his right in the after school traffic.

He supposes that is the most important part. The five of them are happy. Even if he still doesn’t quite get what kind of mind game Evan and Connor are trying to play.

 

 

 

 

 

**♡ Prince Charming ♡**

connie u have the best ideas

 

**☆ Me! ☆**

I know! :D

Think we should tell them?

 

**♡ Prince Charming ♡**

nah

 

**☆ Me! ☆**

You're evil!

I love it >:)

 

**♡ Prince Charming ♡**

<3 u too babe

**Author's Note:**

> I like to think that Connor is just sort of very all or nothing about everything. Just, this universe's Connor decided to turn his energy towards enthusiasm for life instead of turning his energy inwards until it explodes because he's afraid of what he'll do. He's not afraid of himself because he got help from the first signs that he was having trouble. Evan learned early on that when you look scary people tend to bother you less, which lead to less bullying, and also he consistently takes his medications so he can be calmer. (It's because he has a paralyzing fear of looking weak brought on by his dad leaving when he was about 13 instead of when he was really little.) Alana and Jared really aren't that different from canon, at least now. Zoe was popular in elementary and learned that it sucked, so she retreated to books and knowledge and her brother instead. 
> 
> But that's all just my headcanon/theory haha. The only canon thing? Everyone's gay. All of them. Just. So gay.
> 
> As much as I love this AU for being fun and easy to write, I don't know that I'll be returning to it. It isn't my AU and a lot of the canon of the AU is undecided or up in the air. To continue writing it I'd need permission from mushie to develop their AU further. If you'd like to see more though, let me know.


End file.
